My wife and i got a 12V Ford Raptor a couple weeks ago for our son for Christmas. Over the last couple weeks i have been modifing it. We gave it to him yesterday for Christmas and although he is happy and im happy with the way it turned out im VERY, VERY disappointed in how the truck rides. The lugs/tread on the tires although look cool they cause a HORRIBLE ride, the truck bounces and shakes bad, i thought maybe it was the asphalt street we have but even after bringing the truck to my mother in laws it did the same thing on the smooth cement by her house. My sons entire body was shaking due to this, the tailgate darn near opened itself as well from the bouncing/shaking. As much as i dont want to put a ton more money into the truck somthing has to be done so my son doesnt shake himself to death. I could do "Power Bands", Bike Innertubes, Etc... but i dont want to cause another issue of destroying gearboxes by putting some sort of rubber on the tires to cushion the ride. Any idea? I thought maybe i could put them in a lathe and make sure there true but with how thin the plastic tires are im afraid i could end up cutting through the plastic and destorying them.

Please HELP! I have to much money invested into this thing for him to end up not liking it due to all the shaking.

I also think that it seams like the passenger side rear wheel gets more power when the throttle is pressed. I thought both tires would spin when taking off put its always the rear tire. Both tires spin at the same speed when off the ground but when its on the ground the right seams better. Any ideas on what to check and how to check it?

I have been scratching my head all day about this and think i may have come up with a idea. Im thinking the issue is that the center treads are spaced to far apart and it causes a bounce, multiplying that by 4 tires you could imagine how bad it is.

My idea is to take this rubber feet to fill the void and have them fit flush with the tread. This way it shouldnt add much traction but should eliminate the gap and smoothing out the ride.

toycrusher wrote:I love your idea. Filling in the voids is the only option, they are truly awful riding on anything but grass. Let us know how it works!

Well my idea was just that until i priced them. eBay has 25qty 5/8" Round & 3/8" Tall for $12.94 which doesnt seam to bad but after getting home and looking at the tires more i seen there are 16 gaps in each tire and each gap would need 2 rubber feet so thats 128 total. $13 X 6 sets is $78 Total and thats alot for a gamble that i dont know for sure if it will work or not.

EDIT: I just noticed that the seller has a offer of buy 2 set get a 3rd free so that brings the price down to $52 for 150 of them. Still a gamble but a cheaper one, just emailed him to see what kinda of deal we could work out if i bought more than the 2.

My concern is that if it works then great! If not, not only did i blow $50 of those little feet but i would also need to get new tires. Wish i had a spare set laying around to try out.

I hate to sound like a cry baby about it and i know people say they all ride like crap because of the hard tires but not all of them have the big gap these tires have. The best example i can give is its basically like removing the round tires off your car and putting octagone shaped tires on it.

I did email PW today explaining how unhappy i was with the way it rode, not sure if that means anything to them but im waiting on a reply to see what they say and to see if they have any options.

A cheaper option could be buying a sheet of black plastic the right thickness and cutting out your own spacers. More time and energy involved but it could be cheaper. You could countersink holes so the screws sit flush with the plastic spacer once installed.

Bigmac41288b wrote:A cheaper option could be buying a sheet of black plastic the right thickness and cutting out your own spacers. More time and energy involved but it could be cheaper. You could countersink holes so the screws sit flush with the plastic spacer once installed.

Great minds must think alike because I been looking at this material here.

Yesterday i got a phone call from Power Wheels to say they are sending me another set of tires with 2 day shipping. I asked if they redesigned them and the lady said not that she knew of but something must be wrong with the ones i have. I dont think anything is wrong with them, i just think the design of them is the issue. Regardless i have a set on the way so for any reason i screw the set i have up trying to fix the issue ill have another set to put on the truck.

Rob222 wrote:Would a bunch of wraps of duct tape settle them down a little ?

Im sure it would, i also sure it would increase the traction as well so instead of having grey or even if i got black tape wrapped around the tires that im sure would get sticky crap all over i might as well do "Power Bands"?

Im not giving up on this, i will find a solution to the issue. Now that i have a new set of tires on the way i can take some risk to get the outcome that i want.

Does anyone know of a tire that is a direct replacment for the Raptor tires? It seams like the noisiness and rough ride has my son not wanting to ride the truck and i got way to much into it to let it just sit.

I wonder if jeep hurricane rims will fit on the f150. Then you could do something with rubber tires like this: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=20757

I have no idea if this will actually work! I was just brainstorming after seeing your thread pop up again. I have the same issue with the tires on the hurricane while riding on pavement. I've been thinking about an ESC conversion and rubber tires after this summer. My tires are starting to get pin holes as of now so I'll need new tires soon anyways.

What about getting a piece of PVC pipe the tires will fit into snug and epoxy them on? It will probably give more traction due to the extra surface area contacting the ground but not enough to break the gear boxes.

Sean wrote:What about getting a piece of PVC pipe the tires will fit into snug and epoxy them on? It will probably give more traction due to the extra surface area contacting the ground but not enough to break the gear boxes.

Well my concern is the look at function of the tires so i dont think PVC will be something i would do. Its also one of the reasons i dont want to swap to rubber tires, along with the tearing up gearbox issues as well.

I ended up ordering these Friday evening.

They should be here next week. Hopefully they come in early in the week so i can get them installed and a test run before i leave to go out of town Thursday. Ill be sure to report my outcome.

Did you ever get a resolution for this issue. We just gave a used F150 to my son for Easter and find the ride to be ridiculously bumpy on the pavement, however on the grass it rides like a dream. I was considering trading out the wheels for some of the Escalade wheels you can get online, but I don't know for sure if they will even fit. I am not interested in sinking more money into this thing either, but I believe you can get a set of replacement wheels for roughly $50.

I was just going through your post and the comments on this feed. Have you checked out www.scratchinfortraction.com They offer a rubber traction band specifically designed for the issue that you are having. It is my understanding that it also prevents wear and tear therefor minimizing future investment on replacement tires.

I have a set for my child's Peg Perego Gator xiv 550 camo edition and he has yet to find terrain that is difficult to conquer!